


It Goes Something Like This

by Vagrant_Blvrd



Series: Teeth Like Razor Blades [1]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe- GTA V, M/M, Multi, Pre-Fake AH Crew
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 09:08:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16573694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vagrant_Blvrd/pseuds/Vagrant_Blvrd
Summary: It’s hard to say how the hell this even happened, but Michael’s not going to complain. (Or, okay, heis, but only because everyone is so fucking stupid.)





	It Goes Something Like This

**Author's Note:**

> I've been rewatching the Criminal Mastermind videos and fell in love with the idea of these four becoming crew of their own before meeting Geoff and Jack and all the FAHC shenanigans that follow. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Technically, Michael meets Jeremy first.

“You fucking shot me!” Michael yells, because he and Jeremy are drunk as fuck and recounting to the others how they met.

Opposite sides, _Romeo and Juliet_ kind of bullshit and Michael running into a short fucker with dyed hair and this shitty little gun.

Michael carrying an equally shitty assault rifle that fucking jammed on him, giving Jeremy enough time to pop off a shot that grazed his shoulder before he bolted. (Insert short joke here.)

“I panicked!” Jeremy yells back, because he remembers that night just as clearly, and he knows Michael now. (Goddamned short jokes.)

Michael starts cackling because he’s got a shit-ton of short jokes all saved up just for Jeremy and _Jeremy knows him now_.

It’s no surprise when Jeremy yells incoherently and fucking tackles Michael off the couch, mouth crashing into his like he thinks he can stop Michael, the others laughing helplessly at them.

========

Ryan is...he’s this fucking bogeyman haunting Los Santos and whatever hellscape he came from remembers him because pieces of it come looking for him from time to time.

Michael heard about him before he met him, which is something that just happens in Los Santos. 

You hear about fuckers like the goddamned Vagabond and either shit your pants at the thought of running up against him, or don’t really think about it because what are the odds, right?

If you’re Michael, though, you end up with a crew that hires Ryan on to help with a job and have the shitty luck to have someone from Ryan’s past catching up to him. (Worst timing really, and Michael caught in the middle of the whole mess.)

They’re waiting for the timer to hit zero before they kick things off and Ryan’s being a little too smug about things again. (Not dangerously so, no. Just this side of irritating, which means someone needs to remind him the Vagabond is really just a huge dumbass.)

There’s a certain kind of silence over the comms, not quite judging, because God knows their own pasts have caused them trouble in the past, but - 

“In my defense,” Ryan says, sounding less like the soulless monster he’s supposed to be, and more like the hapless idiot he is. “I thought Carl was dead.”

The silence this time around is absolutely judgmental because Ryan is an idiot who slips up from time to time.

“Yeah, well,” Michael says, remembering the nightmare chase through the streets of Los Santos while being chased by an asshole bent on revenge. “You’re a surprisingly shitty driver for someone with your reputation.”

Michael grins as Ryan sputters, and outright laughs when Gavin starts squeaking and Jeremy wheezes.

“Oh, you are in for it when we get home,” Ryan says, and it isn’t the Vagabond or hapless idiot Ryan making the threat, just that dumb bastard Michael’s more than a little in love with.

Michael grins at the chorus of _ooohs_ from Gavin and Jeremy and Ryan’s fondly exasperated sigh.

A soft _ding_ sounds over the comms signaling the start of this little heist of theirs, and Michael cheerfully breaks out the explosives to start things out the right way.

========

“Fucking Battle Buddies!” Jeremy yells, because he’s an idiot.

“Battle Buddies, fuck yeah!” Ryan yells, because he, too, is an idiot.

Idiots who refuse to tell Michael and Gavin how they met, just come out with the Battle Buddies shit like that’s a thing normal people do. 

They even have matching tattoos on their biceps. Michael likes to run his fingers over them, tracing the lines of stupid hardcore design on the dumbest people he knows, and feeling their muscles flex under his touch.

========

Gavin - 

“Ryan was supposed to kill me,” he says, tinkering with some gadget or whatever Ryan got for him on his latest job. “Didn’t do it, though.”

It’s an idle comment, lazy day for them with the rain coming down steadily outside and things going well for them at the moment.

Michael looks up from the deathmatch he is handily losing while Jeremy and Ryan hunt each other in-game, every bit as creepy as the rumors say the Battle Buddies are.

“Fucking surprise there, Gav,” Michael says, as though Ryan’s the only one in the room who’s tried to kill him.

There was a time Michael was ordered to kill Gavin too, and Jeremy has a similar story of his own, because apparently Gavin’s just that annoying.

Makes a habit of making enemies easy as breathing and getting clear of them by the skin of his teeth one way or another. (They weren’t the first to hired to kill Gavin, and knowing him they won’t be the last.)

“Hey,” Ryan protests, not looking away from the screen. “I _almost_ killed you.”

Gavin snorts, like Ryan’s blowing things out of proportion there. (Honestly given the way things went when Michael was sent to kill him, it’s possible.)

Twisty little fuck with a love of traps and clever as hell. 

This scar on Michael’s back from one of them, and Gavin patching him up when Michael realized his boss was a lying fuck and maybe keeping Gavin alive was in his best interests after all. (Which, you know, considering how things worked out, it definitely was.)

========

Lester’s the reason they started working together, all that time ago. Called them in for a job he didn’t want to trust to anyone else for whatever reason, and things just sort of...happened from there.

Jeremy eyeing Michael warily, eyes darting to Michael’s shoulder and the graze long since healed. Michael snatching the keys out of Ryan’s hand with a scowl, because he’d be goddamned if he let the asshole drive anything he was in ever again. Gavin with this bemused expression on his face as he looked to Lester as though wondering what the hell the man was thinking.

Lester not giving a shit about any of that as he laid out the particulars of the job and chased them out of his place to get things done. 

The four of them staring at each other because _really_ , and finding out through a series of misadventures along the way that they actually worked well together. (Somehow didn’t get each other killed, but that’s one and the same sometimes in Los Santos.)

Lester kept calling them together for jobs, and eventually they figured hey, why the fuck not and formed a crew of their own, and that slid into something else because hey, why the fuck not? 

Jeremy’s terrible fashion choices and worse puns and shy, sweet smile when they kissed for the first time. Ryan’s stupid everything and strong hands cradling Michael's face so, so gently after a close call and lips against his, something desperate to it. Gavin’s reckless bravery and blood on his face, crooked little smile and quiet _“Hey,”_ after endless days tearing the city apart to find him like he’d never doubted they’d be looking for him. 

The four of them figuring their shit out like complete idiots. (Which meant it took them fucking forever to do it, but when they did it turned out to be the best fucking thing in the world.)

Lester still goes to them when something big is happening, and for better or worse, Agent 14 trusts them too. (As much as an asshole like him can, at any rate.)

========

Gavin is the one who finds out about them. Pair of idiots making like they’re here to take over Los Santos, one step at a time.

Asshole in a tux and his partner in crime known to favor gaudy Hawaiian shirts, and ties to the Roosters.

Looking to carve out a space for themselves here and putting out feelers for anyone willing to take some risks for major rewards.

“No,” Ryan says, because Gavin has that look in his eye again.

The one that says he’s fascinated, and he’s always been a bit of a risk-taker, and they’re a little too invested in the stupid fuck to let him get himself killed.

“I mean,” Jeremy says, icing his shoulder after a sparring match that got a little too spirited, while Michael presses a bag of frozen peas to his jaw. “It could be a good thing?”

Michael leans against Ryan, feels the tension running through him because he’s a pessimistic bastard. (No surprise considering the road that led him here to Los Santos.)

They’re doing pretty well for themselves, when all is said and done. 

Have a nice place to live and a few fancy cars, a bike or two. All the tech Gavin could ever want and contacts all over the city. 

Lester hates them a little less than he hates most people, and Agent 14 is willing to look away if they get into things they shouldn’t when he isn’t involved. (Hasn’t called the FIB or IAA down on them anyway.)

Absolutely no reason to look into these two idiots, or too closely at the way they’re all feeling a little restless where they are now, too big for the small-time crew they used to run with and the kind of shit they’re involved in, and not big enough on their own for some of the things they’d like to try their hand at. (No reason at all, if they want to stay where they are.)

========

“Huh,” Ramsey says, eyebrows raised as he gets a look at them. “I, uh. _Huh_.”

Michael glances at Ryan who is menacing as ever while working. At Jeremy who has traded in that brown cowboy hat of his for a blindingly white one apparently as a _fuck you_ to any other cowboys roaming the streets of Los Santos like that's a thing that happens. 

At Gavin, smug as fuck as he takes a delicate sip of his drink, because he’s got three of Los Santos’ more notorious figures at his back, and loves the reactions it gets from people when they realize. (As though Gavin isn’t as well known as they are, or his work, at any rate.)

The bar is quiet for this time of day, the six of them in a booth at the back and Patillo eyeing them appraisingly while Ramsey - 

“You said you were looking for people for this job of yours,” Gavin says, eyebrows raised. “We’re interested.”

Ramsey sits back, gaze flicking between them and this frown between his eyes as he considers. (There are new rumors about the four of them these days, and he’s sure to have heard them by now.)

“We are,” he says slowly, as though he’s realizing the things he could do with them on his side, a light in his eyes alarmingly like the one Gavin gets.

Gavin smiles, just a hint of teeth, because he’s always a step ahead of them in matters like this.

========

Ramsey becomes Geoff, Patillo becomes Jack, and Los Santos never really recovers when the six of them decide to make their mark on the city.


End file.
